Kremlin adviser warns UK drone factories face attack risk
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- Andrei Fedorov, a Kremlin adviser and former deputy foreign minister, warned UK factories manufacturing drones for Ukraine could be hit by attacks from "unknown sources," telling the BBC he could not "exclude 100 percent" some "semi-military" action.
- Fedorov said possible responses could include hacker attacks "not from official level" or action against "enterprises...the factories which are producing drones for Ukraine."
- The UK shared blueprints for Scalp missile components — a French-produced version of the Storm Shadow with a 240km (149-mile) range capable of hitting fortified bunkers — during Burnham's first overseas trip to Kyiv on Monday.
- Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the UK is "participating in this war" by sharing missile blueprints, adding "fuel to the fire."
- Burnham fired back in Kyiv, asking reporters who started the fire in the first place — a reference to Russia's February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
- Moscow frames the UK agreement as evidence of Britain's "direct military involvement" in the war, not merely military aid.
Why it matters: Kremlin rhetoric has now escalated to implied attacks on industrial targets inside a NATO member's borders — moving from accusing the UK of "participating in this war" to warning of "semi-military" action. The trigger is concrete and stated: blueprint-sharing would let Ukraine domestically manufacture 240km-range Scalp missiles, dramatically expanding its capacity to strike fortified Russian targets beyond what imported Storm Shadows allowed.
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